{"id":97803,"date":"2025-06-14T15:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T14:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=97803"},"modified":"2025-06-14T15:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T14:48:21","slug":"how-a-cardiff-baseball-team-is-throwing-a-curveball-in-welsh-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2025\/06\/14\/how-a-cardiff-baseball-team-is-throwing-a-curveball-in-welsh-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Cardiff baseball team is throwing a curveball in Welsh sport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meet Wales\u2019 only adult American baseball team, the Cardiff Merlins<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>BASEBALL may be seen as a typically American sport, but on this side of the pond it\u2019s also being played by a number of British fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walk through Pontcanna Fields on a Sunday and you might spot the Cardiff Merlins, the only non-university baseball team in Wales, playing a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to statistics from Sport England, around 22,000 people played baseball or softball in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year also saw two Major League Baseball (MLB) games take place at London Stadium, in a sign that the sport is gaining momentum within Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the Merlins currently in the middle of the season playing as part of South West &amp; Wales Baseball League, the <em>Cardiffian<\/em> spoke to players about their experience with the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"about:blank\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ho7_tVOIPF4?si=oW6RSl7HE7Uh94fm\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><noscript><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ho7_tVOIPF4?si=oW6RSl7HE7Uh94fm\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VIDEO: Meet the Merlins, Wales\u2019 only adult American baseball team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1212,"featured_media":97804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,4],"tags":[1512,30,4107,74],"coauthors":[8788],"class_list":["post-97803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-outabout","category-sport","tag-baseball","tag-bute-park","tag-pontcanna-fields","tag-sport-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How a Cardiff baseball team is throwing a curveball in Welsh sport - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VIDEO: Meet the Merlins, Wales\u2019 only adult American baseball team, as the sport grows in popularity in the UK.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2025\/06\/14\/how-a-cardiff-baseball-team-is-throwing-a-curveball-in-welsh-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Cardiff baseball team is throwing a curveball in Welsh sport - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VIDEO: Meet the Merlins, Wales\u2019 only adult American baseball team, as the sport grows in popularity in the UK.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2025\/06\/14\/how-a-cardiff-baseball-team-is-throwing-a-curveball-in-welsh-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The 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